The importance of trust in sourcing
For this end of week thought I asked two of our thought leaders, Adam Lawrence and Isabelle Hung, to reflect on their time in Atlanta, at SourceCon last week.
…”SourceCon celebrated 10 years last week in America, and it was the largest SourceCon to date. Both the 10 year history and the growth of the event signal an evolution and a signpost that the role of the Sourcer is not a fad, but a highly specialised and a valued member of the talent acquisition team around the world.
The event focus has evolved since it began in 2002. Once viewed as more of a round table for a few elite direct sourcing experts, it is now an event that draws over 200 participants and is streamed via the web to over 2000 viewers globally.
From a content perspective, the focus this year was a balance between practitioner-level content (the latest, greatest trick to locate candidates) to more business level topics like how you set up and manage a Sourcing function.
This year ‘back to basics’ was debated; can we still get more in a five minute call with a candidate, with a little preparation, than 2 hours of surfing the web? In my opinion, our sourcing needs both …are we using the phone enough, taking referrals enough? Can web aid candidate engagement?”
Engagement and trust form a deep part of the sourcing journey – without one the other does not exist.
“From an attendee mix, most are sourcing practitioners and the balance are in Sourcing leadership roles. There is a clear evolution in topic as well. Whereas 2011 was largely focused around building and managing talent pools and talent communities, 2012 focused more on mobile research and candidate engagement.
In future events, we anticipate a continuing focus on the sharing of ideas for locating talent, but also more concrete discussion regarding how to measure and optimise the output of a Sourcer/Sourcing team.”
Interested in more? You can find summary of Adam’s presentation from SourceCon (thanks to Shannon Van Curen of AIRS):
> > The importance of trust in sourcing < <
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Jerry CollierJerry Collier is Global Director at Alexander Mann Solutions |

